How Ebony King’s rough teenage mum experience inspired her to support vulnerable girls

Youth advocate and social activist, Ebony King was born in Tottenham, North London, to parents of Nigerian origin. Her parents divorced when she was six years old; at 12 years old, she was relocated to Barking, East London. Ebony left All Saints Catholic School, Dagenham, with nine GCSEs. Afterwards, she studied Health & Social care at City and Islington College. Unexpectedly, she dropped out of university to have her first son at 19.

After so many struggles and pressures surrounding her, she finally graduated years later with a BSc Hons in Psychology and Counseling studies from the University of East London.

According to Ebony, she said “Going to university after giving birth to my son at 19 was a struggle. Not only because of the physical changes I had just experienced. I also wasn’t prepared mentally. At that point, I wasn’t motivated to go to university. I didn’t see the point of going because I was surrounded by uneducated fraudsters and drug dealers making thousands of pounds daily. However, little did I know that fast money is not good money. I later learned that going to university and having a backup plan, if you can find the motivation and go can be handy later in life.”

She further stated, “I was able to cope physically because my mum took my son to Nigeria when he was a few months old so I could focus on my university education. It took a while for me to be focused. It took a while to see the point of university, so I had to do a few resits. I’ve had many life challenges, but finding a balance to juggle everything is extremely hard. I’ve recently learned that to be successful in life, I must be strategic in everything I do. Having a plan instead of overworking for nothing is highly important. Having people look down on me or not believe in me or misjudge me was hard in the beginning, but now I don’t care, and I understand that you can’t please everyone.”

However, amidst all, she could scale through, and now she has successfully founded Elevate Her UK and Elevate Her Africa, registered charity organisations. The organisations are focused on extending a helping hand to teenage girls and young women who need to be supported mentally and physically through various projects.

Elevate Her Africa, is making a positive impact as they have organised skill-based workshops and training for students from partner schools. The participants of these workshops can now use the skills they learnt as a hobby or to start a business.

The organisation offers first aid training as it is an essential skill that can prevent so many accidents in Nigeria. In the UK, caregivers must have regular first aid updates. Therefore, the organisation plans to work with government officials to replicate this in Nigeria.